How a blog finds its people

I find myself writing about blogging a lot this year. I’ve gone meta! I’ve been exploring this topic to get at truths that have eluded me so far. Here’s another try at uncovering them. I started Down the Road in February of 2007 with no readers and no idea how to get any. I just wanted to write. This site, as it appeared in 2007 That was fine for a while, as the writing itself was reward enough. But after a couple of years, I started to wonder whether anyone beyond my friends and family would ever find this place. Posts went up, a handful of people read them, and the comments were thin. I asked myself the question every blogger eventually asks: is this worth it? I started to think this was a hobby that would soon run its course. I almost let it trail off. Then in December 2010, WordPress featured one of my articles on Freshly Pressed, their editorial showcase of posts worth reading. The article was Defending good grammar, sort of, a response to blogger Penelope Trunk’s…